Tereré Time

We have a lovely volunteer at work at the moment. She's called Claudia and originally hails from Paraguay - the first Paraguayan I've ever met!

Today she kindly brought in her Temeré set (I'm not sure if that is the right way to refer to it) so we could experience the taste of this popular drink from her homelands.

The big pot contains cold water which you add to the leaves in the guampa, a cup made out of horn, so it can produce the temeré. You then drink the infusion through a bombilla or metal straw.

I don't usually drink tea because I'm really sensitive to the caffeine in it but I gave this a bash. Claudia told me that temeré doesn't contain any caffiene but does have related substances which have a similar effect.

Unsurprisingly after a couple of guampas worth I was flying! I haven't felt so alert for years. However I did develop a slight 'hangover' when the effects wore off. Who needs booze eh?

If you're wondering how it tasted I would describe it as drinking an infusion of mild tobacco and mint - which actually sounds a lot worse than it actually tastes. I'd've happily drunk a whole lot more but you'd've had to scrap me off the ceiling.

You can read more about the drink in this Wikipedia article.